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Under the Mandate of Nationalism: Development of Feminist Enterprises in Modern Korea, 1860-1910

Yung-Hee Kim

Journal of Women's History, Volume 7, Number 4, Winter 1995, pp. 120-136 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press

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Under the Mandate of Nationalism: Development of Feminist Enterprises in Modern Korea, 1860-1910

Yung-Hee Kim

Modern Korean feminism from its birth in the late nineteenth century was inextricably interwoven with nascent nationalism, which

emerged as a reaction to the encroachments of Western industrial nations and Japan in their scramble for hegemony in East Asia.1 It grew as an integral part of the national mobilization movement in an effort to muster all available resources in Korea, including women, to counter these foreign aggressions. This rise of nationalistic consciousness polemicized women's issues as a compelling subject for public discourse and action, and thereby incorporated Korean women into the heart of national Ufe for the first time in Korean history.

Both nationalism and feminism were new and difficult concepts with which contemporary Koreans had to grapple. First, until the nineteenth century, Korea under the Yi Dynasty (1392-1910) had been relatively iso- lated from the rest of the world, except China. In this insulation Korea prided itself on being a stronghold of orthodox Confucian civilization, second only to China. Second, in a society entrenched in Confucian patri- archal ideology, women's issues had rarely been considered appropriate for open discussion, let alone for being incorporated into national policy- making. In this context, the task of formulating a new national identity and its mandates and accommodating feminism within this nationalistic framework was a taU order. The coalescence of nationalism and feminism in Korea, therefore, resulted in a tortuous course of development, often lacking consensus and charged with conflicts and even regression. And this complexity makes the study of the relationships between nationaüsm and feminism in Korea a demanding venture into one of the most tangled narratives in the country's intellectual history.

Korean nationaUsm, unlike European or Japanese expansionist mod- els, represented an essentially defensive political consciousness and activ- ity, born out of the realization of the poUtical frailty of the country. As an expression of patriotic struggle to fend off the impingement of the world superpowers, it stressed internal reforms and self-strengthening as a means to forestall and repel foreign domination and keep national integrity and sovereignty intact. Korean nationalism, in essence, was a reactive ideology and mechanism for self-empowerment, survival, and self-preservation against imperiaUstic aggression or colonization from outside.2

© 1995 Journal of Women's History, Vol. 7 No. 4 (Winter)

1995 International Trends: Yung-Hee Kim 121

The first and most palpable forms of modern Korean nationalism appeared in the 1860s in conjunction with China's defeat in the Arrow War of 1856-58. The international humiliation and helplessness of China vis-à -vis the Western powers served as a wake-up call for Korea, which had for centuries looked to China as the fountainhead of its own civüization. China's predicament posed a challenge to the validity of the long-practiced symbiotic Sino-centrism of the Korean government and made Korea face a formidable task of defining its own new identity and devising strategies to avoid repeating China's poUtical disaster.3 Such growth in self-consciousness as an entity independent of China and accompanying development of Korean nationalism branched almost simultaneously into two diametrically opposed ideological camps, intersecting each other and arbitrating the poUtical destiny of Korea up until the early twentieth century. One was indigenous; the other Western-inspired,4 and both positions contributed significantly to the advent of Korean feminism.

The first persuasion was rooted in a native, peasantry-based reUgious movement caUed Tonghak (Eastern Learning; also called Oi'ondogyo, the ReUgion of Heavenly Way). Tonghak, a mystic amalgam of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and shamanism, proclaimed as its basic credo the oneness of human beings and God and upheld the equaUty of all.5 Tonghak proposed that true national security and peace could be achieved only through the abohtion of Confucian hierarchy and class discriminations— the backbone of the century-old Korean social structure. Korea, thus empowered through internal reforms, could repel the aggression of for- eign powers based on Western technology and CathoUcism, which, Tonghak insisted, had been the cause of China's calamity.6 Although reform-oriented, Tonghak thought was thus basicaUy anti-Western, xeno- phobic, and isolationist.7

As Tonghak, with its appeal to the oppressed, rapidly gained a massive following among the lower classes, the Korean government banned it as heresy for its chaUenge to the rationale of the existing social order. Its momentum was soon cut short by the government's relentless suppres- sion and, after the execution of its founder in 1864, the Tonghak religious movement went underground until its reemergence in the 1890s.

The significance of Tonghak thought from a Korean feminist stand- point is that it expressed one of the earUest pro-woman ideas in its emphasis on humanitarian treatment of women. Tonghak denounced the despotic oppression of women in Korea's patriarchal family system and called for an egaUtarian husband-wife relationship. The resulting har- mony at home was to be the basis of the individual family and the Tonghak reUgion itself. Tonghak even sanctified women's traditionaUy devalued

122 Journal of Women's History Winter

household work as services for God.8 Such vision formed a sharp contrast to the traditional oppression and degradation of women by Confucian patriarchy, epitomized in the absolute obedience of women to men throughout Ufe, in the stipulation of divorce conditions appUed only to women, in the practices of child marriage, strict seclusion of women within the home, and gender segregation, and most tellingly in the injunc- tion against remarriage of widows, to name just a few.9 Thus Tonghak represented one of the earliest attempts in Korea at bringing the ideologies of nationaUsm and feminism together.

Contemporaneously with Tonghak, another strand of nationalistic consciousness was cultivated between 1853 and 1860 by a small circle of intelUgentsia caUed chung'in (middle-class technical speciaUsts) on the periphery of the Korean court.10 Some of them, as court functionaries (such as interpreters of the Chinese language), had frequent opportunities to visit China and witness firsthand the alarming developments in world affairs wreaking havoc there. Their knowledge of Western culture and international poUtics gained through these travels convinced this emerg- ing class of thinkers that fresh poUtical visions and strategies had to be created for their own country's survival. Their ideas for national pro- tection and strength included domestic reforms to modernize society, cultivation of national self-reUance, development of Korean resources through the adoption of Western science and technology, and encour- agement of industries and foreign trade, all traditionally viewed in a negative tight.11

Since these chung'in officials had minimal influence on court poUtics, they concentrated instead on the bright youths of the aristocracy. Eventu- aUy, this younger generation of intelUgentsia, centering around Kim Ok- kyun* (1851-94), would have a decisive hand in the nation's poUtical vicissitudes as weU as in the development of feminism. This Western-ori- ented nationaUsm, however, did not get translated into practice until the mid-1890s.

While these two parallel forms of nationaUsm were running their separate courses, the Western powers' expansionism began making omi- nous inroads into Korea. Armed clashes occurred between Korea and France and between Korea and the United States in 1866 and 1871.12 Despite their miUtary superiority, both France and the United States were repeUed, almost accidentaUy, and their demands for opening Korean ports for trade were rejected. These first encounters with the West persuaded the Korean court to adhere to even more rigid isolationism. However, suc- cumbing to Japan's gunboat diplomacy in the wake of a miUtary confron-

h All Korean names appear last name first, followed by the given name, following the standard usage in Korea.

1995 International Trends: Yung-Hee Kim 123

ration over a Japanese navy ship, Korea entered into a trade treaty and diplomatic relationship with Japan in 1876 and was forced to open its ports to the outside world.13

Sources of information about the world now shifted from China to Japan, which, having transformed itself from a miUtary feudalism into a modem nation-state through a skillful adoption of Western technology since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, achieved an enviable status in the eyes of Koreans with its modernized infrastructure and growing poUtical and economic stature. The head of the first Korean delegation to Japan in 1876 reported his observations on Japanese society, economy, culture, and poUt- ical structure and first introduced to Korea the desirable results of Japan- ese assimilation of Western culture. This report also exposed Koreans to Japan's Western-based educational system for women, causing the first tremor of feminist consciousness in Korea.14

Repeated diplomatic missions thereafter brought the young elites raised by the chung'in thinkers to center stage in the political arena and produced the first modern elite leadership in Korea. Their exposure to Western culture and to the development of international politics turned these anxious young men to quick critiques of their country: an autocratic monarchy besieged by domestic problems in almost every area of its society—economically bankrupt, militarily defenseless, politically paralyzed by chronic court factionalism and by rampant official corruption, and harried by a series of peasant revolts. Out of this sense of crisis, nationalistic and modernist sentiments burgeoned among them.

Finally, with Kim Ok-kyun at the forefront, an elite group called Kaehwadang ("Enlightened Party") launched the "Enlightenment Movement" of the 1880s, patterned after Japan, and ushered in an unprec- edented epoch of national self-examination and self-consciousness.15 Their major modernizing reform agendas included independence from China; aboUtion of all class discriminations; a modernized civil, financial, and judicial administration; a modem defense system, including a navy; modern sanitation, transportation, and agriculture; the development of commerce and industry; modern, Western-style schools; and the use of the vernacular Korean as an official medium of communication.16

The Kaehwadang, however, were met with vehement opposition from the conservative elements at court, and their patriotic endeavors were crushed after an abortive coup d'état on December 4, 1884, called the "Kapsin Incident," led by Kim Ok-kyun. Most of the surviving plotters fled to Japan, and the Kaehwadang, accused of high treason, was dis- banded.17

124 JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S HISTORY WINTER

It was, however, through one participant in the coup, Pak Yöng-hyo (1861-1939), during his exile in Japan, that the ideological coaUtion between Korean nationaUsm and feminism received its first concrete elab- oration. In his memorial submitted on January 13,1888 to King Kojong (1852-1919), Pak, while pleading implementation of the Kaehwadang's reform suggestions, introduced pro-women ideas as its vital part. Holding up the ideal of estabUshing Korea as a strong, civilized, and harmonious country as a national imperative, Pak argued that the elevation of the status of women was essential to such efforts. He proposed the prohibition of the use of poison for abortion, forbidding a husband's abuse of his wife, prohibiting early marriage, estabUshing modern schools without sex dis- crimination, legally banning concubinage, permitting young widows to remarry, and intermarriage among different classes.18 Pak's propositions signalled the first detailed conceptual articulation of Korean feminism presented from nationalistic perspectives.

The conservatives at court, having eliminated the progressives, com- placently indulged in corruption, making ill-advised and misinformed poUtical decisions. Most detrimental was the conclusion of a series of unequal trade treaties with Western countries—Germany, Italy, and Rus- sia in 1884 and France in 1886.19 These treaties conferred upon foreigners extraterritoriaUty and economic privileges to exploit Korean natural resources and faculties for their own benefit, adding staggering blows to the already reduced livelihood of the Korean populace.20

Seizing upon the growing popular discontent and antiforeign agita- tions, the suppressed Tonghak movement resurfaced with renewed vigor, and in 1894 these grassroots forces erupted in armed rebellion on a national scale creating a catastrophic political crisis. The Tonghak leaders presented a twelve-point blueprint for reform, demanding elimination of government corruption, abolishment of the class system, freeing slaves, cancellation of all undue taxes, equal distribution of land, and permission for the remarriage of widows.21 The last item cut deeply into the gnawing problem of hapless women, especially those of the lower classes, who through no fault of their own led subhuman existences without proper economic support or social status simply because of the death of their husbands.22

The Korean government's inability to contain the insurrection invited interventions from China and Japan, which escalated into the Sino-Japan- ese War of 1894-95. Brutally pursued, Tonghak as a miUtant peasant move- ment was completely rooted out. Japan's eventual victory in the Sino-Japanese War removed China's claim of suzerainty over Korea and augmented Japanese influence in Korean domestic affairs. At Japan's urging, the Korean government implemented the "Kabo Reforms" during

1995 International Trends: Yung-Hee Kim 125

1894-96, intended to reorganize Korean society into a modern nation- state.23 The most outstanding measures included the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, implementation of universal education to replace the traditional civil examination system available only to the sons of the nobles, elimination of the class system, aboUtion of slavery, provi- sion of opportunities for commoners to participate in the legislative pro- cess, prohibition of early marriage, and permission for widows to remarry.24 Thus, although the Tonghak movement was annihilated and consequently reduced to a nonviable factor in the alliance between Korean nationaUsm and feminism from mid-1890s, its repercussions virtuaUy catapulted the reluctant Korean society into modernity.

The actions taken under the Kabo Reforms proved pivotal in the history of feminism in Korea as well, because the pardoning of the pro- gressive leaders of the 1884 coup through the reform measures permitted them to take up key posts in the government and also work for feminist causes. Most crucial was the return in 1895 of So Chae-p'U (1866-1951), a former member of the Kaehwadang, from exile in the United States, with specific aspirations "to educate the people and to give them a voice."25 The bitter lesson of the failed 1884 coup was that a nation's progress must begin from the bottom level of society and should not be driven by a selected few at the top.

Sö's first step toward accomplishing his objective materialized in the publication of a newspaper in vernacular Korean, Tongnip sinmun ("The Independent Newspaper"), the first of its kind, on April 7,1896 for easy accessibiUty by the masses, particularly women.26 The adoption of the Korean alphabet, hang'ül, signified a new epoch in Korean cultural history as it speUed the rejection of Korea's traditional dependence on China. The unceasing messages of the newspaper were the importance of poUtical independence and self-reliance through the estabhshment of a Korean cultural identity, through development of natural resources based on Korean capital, renunciation of Confucian authoritarianism, and propaga- tion of individualism, rationalism, and human rights. Such efforts by Tongnip sinmun succeeded in impacting contemporary Korean intellectu- als and making these issues obsessive themes for their discourse.27 The newspaper often betrayed emotionalism, naivete, and oversimplification of issues, but these aroused sentimental and poUtical loyalties of the aUenated masses by shaking them out of apathy and drawing them into the much needed nation-building projects.

Most criticaUy, from its very beginning the newspaper assumed the role of a pubUc advocate for feminist advancement. Its forceful arguments for the betterment of Korean women's reaUty and practical suggestions for such actions made Tongnip sinmun a revolutionary voice for Korean

126 JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S HISTORY WINTER

women, especiaUy the underprivileged. One of its early editorials pro- claimed its bold, pro-woman stance: "We are friends of the lowly, the poor, and the ignorant. Out of our indignation at the iU-treatment of women by men, we intend to fight against men on behalf of women as long as possible."28

Feminist crusades by Tongnip sinmun began with an ideological attack on Korea's traditional sexism by pointing out gender inequality, the irrationality and cruelty of the male mistreatment of women, and the uselessness of Confucian practices, which so long privileged Korean men, while at the same time, encouraging women's self-awak- ening to their own potential:

Justice, manners, and decency in the treatment of women distin- guish men from barbarians. But Korean men treat women without affection, propriety, breeding, and real love. They deal with women as if they were inferior to them, and often tyrannize them unreason- ably in an authoritarian manner ... If Korean women become well- versed in the Korean language, become knowledgeable by learning a variety of subjects, and become respectable in their conduct, they will be better than upper-class men, who are good in Chinese studies but do not know anything else.29

A similar message is conveyed in the following editorial, which exposes the hypocrisy of Confucian rhetoric of respect for women and labels its sexism as slavery:

In the East, wives are called "helpers inside." Unfortunately, Eastern learning has become bigoted, looking down upon women. It ele- vates fathers while degrading mothers. It regards wives as slaves who do cooking, laundry, and run errands. Then, how could they become the helpers inside?30 Another poUcy point Tongnip sinmun emphasized was the importance

of providing women with educational opportunities, which became a recurring leitmotif of the newspaper. The point of women's education was to quaUfy Korean women to contribute to desperately needed national revitalization. The pubUsher of Tongnip sinmun was in a sense motivated by nationalistic pragmatism and considered women's education a para- mount investment in national prosperity, as the foUowing editorial indi- cates:

If the government sets up schools and educates Korean girls, who have been long neglected, the abandoned half of the population will become useful citizens within a few years. There will be no greater benefit to the country than this.31

1995 International Trends: Yung-Hee Kim 127

This equation of female education with national revitalization received further enunciation, but with some changes in perspective:

Women's education means a reinstatement of tens of millions of women, half of our population, from the state of lost things to human beings. From now on, women will no longer be mistreated, because they will retrieve their rights. Children will obtain loving teachers and men will acquire beautiful friends whose friendship will last over a hundred years. And Korea will naturally develop into a dvikzed country.32

This editorial reasons that educated women would be better mothers and fitting companions for their husbands. Thus, the "upgraded and reconstructed" family would become the building block for the con- struction of an enlightened Korea. This educational dialectic harbingered the introduction of a new ideal of women's education as producer of the "wise mother and good wife," which was to dominate educational programs in the subsequent decades in Korea, as was happening at the time in Japan.33

It is clear that behind this nationaUst rhetoric and elated optimism for the advancement of women through education was the commanding presence of statism, that is, nation-centered ideology. Here the primacy of the sustenance of the country on the verge of disintegration becomes the ultimate point of reference and the consideration of women as autono- mous individuals is subsumed under its fiat. Women's empowerment through education is relevant insofar as it is aimed at the empowerment of "others"—in this case, the country. Thus imprinted from the beginning of Korean ferninism, the paradigm of state-serving women provided the inspiration and sanction for the most important feminist enterprises; there was rare deviation from this nationalistic parameter.

Furthermore, Tongnip sinmun championed changes in the institu- tion of marriage and the family system as a means of national transfor- mation. For instance, it denounced the perniciousness of early marriage and arranged marriage practices.34 It also condemned concubinage and prostitution as the most demeaning practices.35 The topic of remarriage of widows received due attention as well.36 This wide range of critique of the traditional abuse of women was complemented by suggestions for better male-female relationships, marriages based on mutual trust and respect, and peaceful homes resulting from such spousal companion- ship.37

Feminist campaigns launched by Tongnip sinmun found reinforce- ment in the activities sponsored by the Independence Club, a group of inteUectuals revolving around So Chae-p'il and his coUeagues. It spon-

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sored pubUc lectures, debates, discussions, and mass raUies for popular rights movements, mobilizing people across social classes and women and functioning as a framing ground for civic participation and as a social pressure group. Frequently, women's issues, such as gender equaUty and education, were chosen for these meetings, to which women were also invited as participants. These activities were undertaken under the prem- ise that the social and cultural Uberation of women was coeval with the poUtical Uberation of the country. Feminist consciousness, thus stimulated by the activities of Tongnip sinmun and the Independence Club, finaUy produced the first Korean women's public organization in the faU of 1898, called Ch'anyang-hoe ("Praise and Encouragement Association"), which largely consisted of upper-class women. Its founding purpose was to gain support from the government to establish a girls' school, and the group pubUshed its manifesto in Tongnip sinmun on September 9, 1898, which is considered the "first declaration of women's rights" in Korean history.38 As the foUowing excerpt demonstrates, the found- ing members of the group had a soUd grasp of the concept of gender equality and its critical importance to the improvement of women's lives in Korea. It also shows the women's familiarity with the presum- ably higher status of Western women, contrasting it with the deplorable situation of Korean women:

In more advanced countries, men and women are equal. Regardless of their sex, mey go to school from the time they are young, and by learning aU kinds of skills, widen their knowledge. When they reach adulthood and get married, women are not subjected to men's control. To the contrary, they command great respect from men.... And how lamentable to think of our own old days!... Why should women who are human beings just hke men with no physical deficiencies remain in the depths of women's quarters to cook food and make wine? Now old rules are removed and new practices are put into use. Likewise, we also intend to reform the old and foUöw the new. Modeling ourselves after other countries, we have plans for founding a school for girls to educate them in a variety of subjects, rules and personal bearings, making them equal to men in the future.39

When no government funding for the school was forthcoming Ch'anyang-hoe staged on October 11, 1898 a pubUc demonstration at the royal palace gate. This was the first instance of Korean women's coUective action as an agent of change, a historic breaking away from the traditional female gender paradigm. The foUowing is an excerpt from their petition submitted to the king to intervene on their behalf. Here again, the argu-

1995 lNTERNAnONAL TRENDS: YUNG-HEE KlM 129

ment is based on statism, with the idea that women's education would contribute to the lofty goal of serving the nation:

In Europe and America, girls are educated in a variety of subjects in schools, resulting in the advancement of their civilization. Why should our country alone be left out and lack schools for girls? ... We women, getting out of our inner quarters, have organized the Ch'anyang-hoe with loyal and patriotic purposes to contribute to the prosperity of the country. But without schools, there is no way of teaching intelligent girls. Therefore, we, in full recognition of our imprudence, have taken the hberty of informing the situation, and plead with Your Majesty to issue an edict to the Ministry of Educa- tion to grant special permission to found a girls' school. We shall have the young girls dedicate themselves to learning, thereby mak- ing our country a civilized nation in the East that will command equal respect from other nations in the world.40 At the government's disregard for their request in spite of the king's

intervention, the Ch'anyang-hoe went ahead and founded a girls' school, Sunsong ("FeUcitous Estabkshment"), in December 1898 with funds from its own members. It was the first nonsectarian girls' school founded by Korean women. It is ironic that a school dedicated to the nationalistic ideal was estabUshed amidst total neglect and even objection by the government—an illustration of how strongly obscurantism was operat- ing in Korean society at the time, especially in the upper echelon, and how tension-filled Korean society was with regard to new ideas con- cerning women.

The leaders of the Ch'anyang-hoe also sponsored and administered cultural activities and regular pubUc lectures on women's issues, just as the Independence Club did. In fact, the relationship between the two groups was singularly close and Tongnip sinmun on many occasions reported the activities of the Ch'anyang-hoe. The Ch'anyang-hoe members, to the amazement and dismay of many Koreans, even took part in the mass raUies against the government's suppression of the popular rights movements mounted by the Club, when women's going outside the home even strictly for family matters was frowned upon.41 The Independence Club was closed in December 1898, accused of plotting to establish a parUamentary poUtical system, whereupon Ch'anyang-hoe's fortune also suffered rapid decline.42

The historical significance of the Ch'anyang-hoe can be measured in terms of its daring idea to form a women's organization that puUed women out of the confinement of the home and made them part of the unfolding destiny of the nation; its initiative to found a girls' school with its own funding; and working for civic causes and thereby exemplifying

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and expanding the radius of women's activities beyond their own immediate family network. It was certainly because of the examples set by the Ch'anyang-hoe that the number of girls' schools which mush- roomed during the next decade was in great measure subsidized by private women's organizations, and the increasing civic and political participation by women thereafter owes much to the Ch'anyang-hoe's trailblazing efforts.

Again a victor in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Japan, a rising superpower in Asia, further soUdified its grip on Korea and succeeded in incorporating Korea into its protectorate in 1905 in the midst of convulsive nationwide protests by Koreans. Ironically, however, from this point on until Korea's collapse into a Japanese colony in 1910, a refueled patriotic zeal swept the entire country into a frantic last-ditch struggle to salvage itself from further political deterioration. Feminist activities also came under the direct influence of this nationalistic fervor, and this period saw one of the strongest bonds between nation- alism and feminism in Korea.

The most striking feature of feminist endeavors during the period from 1905 to 1910 was the speed and scope with which private organiza- tions for the support of women's education came into being aU over the country, numbering at least twenty-eight by 1910.43 The idea of women's education could no longer be resisted by Korean society—national calam- ities won this cause for women. Enormous waves of efforts to nationalize women's education got under way.

Although the cultivation of women's potential for nation building continued to be considered vital, this turbulent period also saw the prom- inence of the educational slogan, "wise mother and good wife." For instance, the Yoja kyoyuk-hoe ("Association for Women's Education"), founded in Seoul in May 1906 to operate Yanggyu Uisuk ("School for Raising Girls"), the second non-Christian private girls' school in Korea, upheld this ideal as its founding objective: "We plan to accomplish our objectives by teaching women with a modern curriculum, fine crafts and arts, and womanly virtues of gentleness and wisdom, thereby cultivating to the fullest their potentials for becoming wise mothers and good wives."44 This trend suggested a return to a form of neopatriarchy, which saw women's ultimate worth stemming from service to "others" in nega- tion of their own personal needs. Even some of the earUer sparks of enthusiasm for female autonomy, which enUvened the contentions of Ch'anyang-hoe and Tongnip sinmun, were suppressed. The dire poUtical exigency of Korea and its dictates provided justification for this ideology and effectively propagandized it during these turbulent times, putting an additional dimension to Korean feminist development.

1995 lNTERNAnONAL TRENDS: YUNG-HEE KlM 131

Yöja kyoyuk-hoe also carried on a variety of activities, much wider in scope than those of Ch'anyang-hoe and with a larger membership tackling more practical issues in women's Uves, such as women's and children's education, hygiene for women and family, changes in the oppressive styles of traditional Korean women's dress, the need to develop women's industries and to better the quality of their daily Ufe, and the development of industries to strengthen the nation.45

Similarly, Yoja pohak'wonyuji-hoe ("Support Association for the Acad- emy for Universal Education for Women"), beyond founding and operat- ing its school, contributed to the cause of women in 1908 by its pubUcation of the first women's magazine in Korea, Yoja chinam ("Compass for Women," May 25,1908). The journal aimed at educating housewives and women beyond school age, and its overaU objective reflected the educa- tional trends of the day:

By reading this magazine, readers will benefit in several ways. First, they will become knowledgeable by acquiring good information; second, the knowledge will make women respectable when they become wives of prominent men; third, it will help women in fine management of their household, and thereby, enable them to keep harmony among members of their family and relatives; and fourth, they will educate their children in such a way that they become superior masculine leaders and elegant ladies.46

Yangwön yohakkyo ("School for Cultivating Women's Resources"), founded on August 25, 1908, was another result of such outreach pro- grams supported by women's organizations. What distinguished this school from others was its founders' emphasis on infusing patriotic ideal- ism and poUtical activism. At graduation, honor students were given biographies of Joan of Arc (1412-31) and Marie-Jeanne Roland (1754-93) as awards.47

The most remarkable coaUtion between feminism and nationalism during the post-protectorate period, however, emerged in women's par- ticipation in the "National Debt Compensation Campaign," which began in February 1907. The drive was initiated by male leaders who argued that, in order to recapture national autonomy, Korea had first to pay back the national loan it owed to Japan.48 They vouched that the entire debt could be paid back with the money saved from a three-month no-smoking drive by Korean men. Soon thereafter, a large number of Korean women began a nationwide operation on their own, insisting that no gender distinction should interfere when civic duties were concerned.

This national debt-repaying campaign marked the first full-fledged women's poUtical movement in Korea, which was organized and wholly

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managed by women themselves. In fact, it was reported that the enthusi- asm and effectiveness of the women's campaign served as an impetus to the men's campaign.49 What is more significant is that women's activism began in the outlying regions of the country, rather than the capital, unlike the majority of previous women's activities—an indication that Korean women's heightening civic and poUtical awareness since the late nine- teenth century had finally penetrated the popular and regional levels and was no longer a monopoly of the elites near the government seat in Seoul.

There existed about thirty such women's organizations scattered throughout the country across social class lines and creeds, including women of Confucian nobüity, concubines, merchants' wives, women wine seUers, female servants, and Christian women.50 These organizations' tactic was to visit individual houses and soUdit women's cooperation through the donation of money, jewelry (gold, silver, and other precious stones, which had immediate cash value), rice and other grains, and savings from food purchases. The emotional glow, hope, and historical consciousness on the part of Korean women engaged in these endeavors was summarily expressed in the following announcement by one women's group:

The current situation of our country does not allow us to take it easy and sleep, drink, or eat comfortably. Any individual in debt would have lost his free rights and would find himself fearful in the pres- ence of the debtor, and in the end, his household would be ruined and unable to support itself any longer; the same could happen to a nation. How can we hope to wholly maintain our country with such debt? ... We women are also rightful children of our great emperor just like men; then, how can we simply sit back immo- bile, to submissively keep the old rules?... With the savings from taking one less spoonful of rice, we hope we can repay the national debt to get out of our enslavement, to regain our free- dom, to achieve eternal independence, and to become the first ranking country in the world.51 It goes without saying that these patriotic campaign experiences

provided women invaluable lessons in public service, volunteerism, organizational skiUs, and the power of sisterhood—all totaUy lacking in the traditional lifestyles of Korean women. Thus, national vicissitudes precipitated the growth of poUtical consciousness and participation, and accelerated the process of gaining equal partnership with men in pubUc affairs without their actuaUy engaging in the struggle to acquire such rights. It appears as if the colossal woes of the nation granted such rights to Korean women almost by default.

1995 International Trends: Yung-Hee Kim 133

In the final analysis, the chain of ül-fated poUtical developments in Korea across a half-century following the mid-nineteenth century was responsible for orchestrating the fluctuating course of the corroboration between feminism and nationaUsm. In many instances, the concerted efforts of both feminists and nationalists were outmaneuvered by forces beyond their control. StiU, it may be argued that these adversities served to quicken the process of women's Uberation from the ideological and practical imprisonment of misogynistic Confucianism and allowed women to gain a measure of experience in self-determination and public participation, albeit constantly hedged in by the centraUty of statism and its caveats. Herein lies the pecuUar limits of Korean feminism as weU as the powerful profile of Korean nationaUsm, whose desperate and compel- ling summons Korean women could not possibly ignore. It seemed that, after all, individualistic feminist concerns were secondary or even irrele- vant, when a nation lost its soveignty and independence.

Notes

1 The term "feminism" here is used in a broad and generic sense, much in line with what Olive Banks used as criteria for her selection of feminists in her Becoming a Feminist: The Social Origins of "First Wave" Feminism (Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books, Ltd., 1986), 2: "The main guiding principle... is the presence of critique of the traditional subordination of women, enshrined as it was in law, custom and religion, and a claim for a new relationship between men and women which would give women greater control over their lives."

2 Shin Yong-ha, Formation and Development of Modern Korean Nationalism, trans. N. M. Pankaj (Daekwang Munhwasa, 1989), 14-15. Unless otherwise noted, works in Korean are published in Seoul, Korea.

3 Michael E. Robinson, "Nationalism and the Korean Tradition, 1896-1920: Iconoclasta, Reform, and National Identity," Korean Studies 10 (1986): 39.

4 Shin, Formation and Development, 34. 5 For detailed studies on Tonghak and its founder, see Susan S. Shin,

"Tonghak Thought: The Roots of Revolution," Korea Journal (Sept. 1979): 11-20; and also, Kim Yong-choon, "An Analysis of Early Ch'ôndogyo Thought," Korea Journal (Oct. 1977): 41-46.

6 Shin, Formation, 41-42.

7 Vipan Chandra, Imperialism, Resistance, and Reform in Late Nineteenth-Cen- tury Korea: Enlightenment and the Independence Club, Korea Research Monograph 13, Center for Korean Studies (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1988), 25-26.

8 Pak Yong-ok, Han'guk kundae yosong undongsa ybn'gu [Study of Modern Korean Women's Movement; hereafter, Yosong undongsa] (Han'guk Chongsin Munhwa Yön'guwön, 1984), 26-29.

134 Journal of Women's History Winter

9 For further details on antiwomen practices in Korea, see Martina Deuchler, "The Tradition: Women During the Yi Dynasty," in Virtues in Conflict: Tradition and the Korean Woman Today, ed. Sandra Mattielli (Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 1977), 1-47. The prohibition of widows' remarriage was codified in 1485 during the reign of King Söngjong (r. 1469-94). See Yung Chung Kim, Women of Korea: A History from Ancient Times to 1945 (Seoul: Ewha Woman's University Press, 1976), 52-53,98,154.

10 Shin, Formation, 34. " Ibid., 37-38.

12 For details about these two incidents, see Carter J. Eckert, et al., Korea. Old and New: A History (Ilchokak, 1990), 195-196.

13 Ibid., 200.

14 The report highlighted its astonishment at the Japanese school curriculum for girls, which included astronomy, geography, military science, agriculture, literature, and painting. See Lee Hyön-hi, Han'guk kündae yosong kaehwasa [History of Enlightenment of Modem Korean Women] (Iuch'ulp'ansa, 1982), 78.

15 Chandra, Imperialism, Resistance, and Reform, 42,44. "Ibid., 45.

17 For details on this event, see Andrew C Nahm, "Kim Ok-kyun and the Reform Movement of the Progressives," Korea Journal (December 1984): 38-62; and Yöng-ho Ch'oe, "The 'Kapsin' Coup of 1884: A Reassessment," Korea Studies 6 (1982): 105-124.

18 Pak Yong-ok, Han'guk kündae yösöngsa [History of Modern Korean Women; hereafter, Kündae yösöngsa](Chöng'umsa, 1975), 48-49.

19 See Eckert, Korea, 205-208.

20 Chandra, Imperialism, 38. 21 Shin, Formation, 143.

22 It should be noted that Ch'oe Che-u (1824-64), the founder of Tonghak, was the son of a remarried widow, whereas Ch'oe Si-hyöng (1827-98), the second patriarch of Tonghak, married a widow himself; see Pak, Kündae yösöngsa, 51.

23 For details on the Reforms, see Young I. Lew, "Korean-Japanese Politics Behind the Kabo-Ulmi Reform Movement, 1894 to 1896," Journal of Korean Studies 3 (1981): 39-81.

24 The issue of constitutional monarchy was never settled, because of the intransigence of the king and conservative officials; see James B. Palais, "Political Participation in Traditional Korea, 1876-1910," Journal of Korean Studies 1 (1979): 87-88.

25 Exiled at first in Japan after the 1884 coup, So got a medical degree from Columbia Medical College in Washington, D.C. (presently Medical College of George Washington University) in 1893 and practiced medicine in Washington, having obtained American citizenship. His return to Korea was urged by his former Kaehwadang colleagues. See Lee Kwang-nin, Han'guk kaehwa sasang yon'gu

1995 International Trends= Yung-Hee Kim 135

[Study on Enlightenment Thought in Korea] (llchokak, 1979), 103-108; 148; 158- 159.

26 So penned most of the editorials until his forced resignation from the post in May 1898, under pressure from the government, because of his sharp and continued criticism of the Korean government's political ineptitude. See ibid., 182-189.

27 Robinson, Nationalism and the Korean Tradition, 40-43.

28 Tongnip sinmun, Sept. 5,1896. 29 Ibid., April 21,1896. 3» Bid., Sept. 13,1898. 31 Ibid., Sept. 5,1896. 32 Ibid., May 26,1899. 33 For discussions on the Japanese version of "good wife and wise mother,"

see Sharon L. Sievers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1983), 109-113.

34 Tongnip sinmun, Feb. 12,1898; June 20,1898; Oct. 7,1899. « Ibid., Feb. 12,1898. 3« Ibid., March 15,1899.

37 Ibid. July 20,1899. 38 Choi Sook-kyung (Ch'oe Suk-kyöng), "Formation of Women's Move-

ments in Korea: From the Enlightenment Period to 1910," in Challenges for Women: Women's Studies in Korea , ed. Chung Sei-wha and trans. Shin Chang-hyun, et al. (Seoul: Ewha Woman's University Press, 1986), 109.

39 Tongnip sinmun, Sept. 9,1898. « Ibid., Oct. 13,1898. 41 Choi, "Formation," 113-115. 42 Ibid., 115.

43 Pak, Yosong undongsa, 209-210. 44 See Ch'oe Suk-kyöng, "Han'guk yosong haebang sasang üi söngnip" [The

Establishment of Women's Liberation Ideology in Korea; hereafter, "Yosong haebang sasang"], Han'guk Sahak I (Han'guk Chongsin Munhwa Yön'guwön, 1980), 215.

45 Pak, Yosong undongsa, 86,90. « Ibid., 103. 47 Ibid., 105.

48 The debt, amounting to 1,300 million won in Korean currency, was the result of the Korean government's borrowing Japanese funds for maintenance of the Korean banking system, road construction, and salaries for Japanese advisors. See Ch'oe, "Yosong haebang sasang," 211.

136 JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S HISTORY WINTER

49 Pak, Yosong undongsa, 143. 50 Ch'oe, "Yosong haebang sasang," 214. 51 It was carried in Chekuk sinmun (Imperial Newspaper) on April 1,1907; see

ibid.